Machine for bolting flour



(No Model.)

J. M. PINCH.

MACHINE FOR BOLTING' FLOUR.

No. 460,915. Patented Oct. 6, 1891.

W] ZWESSES [NV EN T01? aftiomey.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN M. FINCI'I, OF CROCKETT, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO MILFORD IIARMON, OF JACKSON, MICHIGAN.

MACHINE FOR BOLTING FLOUR.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 460,915, dated October 6, 1891. Application filed April 11, 1891. Serial No. 388,559- (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN M. FINOH, of Crockett, in the county of Contra Costa and State of California, have inventeda new and useful Machine for Bolting Flour, of which the following is a specification.

In the annexed drawings, making part of the specification, Figure l is a vertical transverse section of the machine. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the machine.

The same letters are employed in all the figures in the designation of identical parts.

A is a chest substantially airtight, except where openings are formed for feed and discharge.

B is the feed-opening, and C the dischargeopening for the escape of the unbolted portion of the chop or material under treatment.

These openings extend lengthwise of the chest and should be approximately of the full length of the screen and cylinders, to be described, and are placed in such position that the chop shall be fed to the first of the series of cylinders, and the tailings or unbolted portions discharged after it has been subjected to the action of the last of the series. Any suitable chop-feeder may be employed, that one being preferable which will most evenly distribute the chop along the length of the cylinder, so that it may have a uniform subjection to the action of the screen.

D is a single flat screen formed of boltingcloth placed infront of aseries of rapidly-rotating cylinders E E E (8120., arranged in the same plane, axially, and driven in the same direction. \Vhile cylinders, these need not necessarily be true cylinders, for they may be solid or hollow, or they may be polygonal or corrugated, bladed,or otherwise roughened.

The screen D is placed so as to form a partition between the body of the chest in which the cylinders are placed and a chamber A, into which the flour is delivered and from which it is discharged at F. The entire chest is therefore substantially air-tight, except as to the openings 13, C, and F.

The cylinders in rotating will entrainthat is to say, draw with themselves currents of air, which form belts of air revolving with the cylinders. As all the cylinders revolve (marked a and b.) As the chop passes each cylinder itreceives an additional impulse, the result of which is thatit is moved along the face of the screen toward the tail. The strength of the rotating currents depends upon the velocity of rotation of the cylinders, and they are generated by the rapid rotation of an eutirely smooth cylinder; but by using narrow radial blades it is thought that the same eiiiciency may be attained with less speed given to the cylinders. These blades do not act, as do those of a rotary fan, to draw in air at the center and deliver it tangentially at the periphery, as they are too narrow and too "near together to produce such action, and the solid surface to which they are attached will pre- Vent the indraft of air. Their eifect is to roughen the periphery and promote the frictional action in drawing the air into rotary belts moving with the cylinders. Nor are they intended to act mechanically as chop-tossers to catch the chop and dash it against the screen. The air-belt intercepts the chop and carries it forward with a centrifugal impulse, delivering it against the screen as it passes from the influence of one cylinder to another. The flour as it is sifted through the meshes falls by gravity through the still air of the chamberA, while the unbolted portion of the chop, constantly diminishing in quantity, passes from cylinder to cylinder until the coarse particles which cannotpass through the meshes are delivered into the tailingsspout G.

In the machine illustrated in the drawings the chop is fed to the lowest one of the series of cylinders, and in such case its action will be somewhat different from that as above described appertaining to the subsequent cylinders. As the chop is fed into the bottom of the chest the cylinder wallows in the chop, and there the blades perform the mechanical function of throwing it upward into the airbeltwhich surrounds and travels with the next cylinder in the series. In this case the bottom underneath the feed-opening may be made of a semi-cylindrical form and may be composed of bolting-cloth, through which the flour wilLbesifted before the chop comes to the flat screen D, and be delivered into the fiour-spout with the other. As the Hour should fall away from the screen D and not back through it, it may be placed in any position which will permit this escape. As the forward impulse by which the chop is delivered against and carried along the screen is due to the rotation of the cylinders generating the rotary air-belts the feed may be delivered to the lowest cylinder in the series, and I have now in operation machines in which the chop is fed into the bottom and the failings delivered after passing to the topmost cylinder. In this case the machine acts as an elevator as well as-a separator, and by multiplying the number of cylinders the tailingsmay be carried as high as may be desired. In such case, of course, shorter cylinders will be used with'along narrow vertical screen, the relative proportions being preserved, so as to give the necessary amount of bolting-surface, Whether the distance traveled vertically, horizontally, or obliquely be much or little. So far as this work of elevation or conveyingis concerned independently of the specific use of the cylinders in combination with the screen for bolting the essential elements will be made the subject of a concurrent application and the claims of this patent limited to combinations in which a screen is an element, reserving the right to make broader claims in the other application I and patent.

Baffle-strips G, arranged between the cylinders, are intended to give to bring it more directly into the action of the rotating belts of air, which gives it coni tinned forward movement with fresh impulse I have not as it passes from one to the other. been able to ascertain from careful observation that any part of the chop after it has left the first cylinder of the series penetrates the rotating air-belt to come in contact with the cylinder or blades; but if it should be the case such particles'will be thrown out mechanically by the centrifugal action of the blades. For this reason the cylinders are placed near to the surface of the screen-say at a distance of three-fourths of an inchwhereas if the blades acted mechanically to throw the chop the distance might be quite considerable, dependent largely upon the gravity of the particles.

WVhile I have given to the best of my knowledge the precise effect produced by the different parts of the machine, I do not wish to be held to the correctness of my theories; but I stand upon the description of the machine which is now in practical operation as being sufficient to enable persons skilled in the art to construct and operate it, which can be done whether my theories are correct or I not.

I am aware that various devices have been proposed for throwing the chop against the surface of stationary screens inclosing the chop-throwing devices, sometimes in the form of screens surrounding a bladed cylinder in whole or in part, andin others the screens were fiat and placed face to face, so that the chop was thrown first against one and then against the other, thus passing down in a zig zag course from top to bottom; but in all these machines the action of chop-throwing was purelymechanical and the currents of air, where developed at all, were intended to pass through the meshes with the flour, neither of which actions is contemplated in my machine. In the machine in which rotary brushes or fans are employed between two screens, they necessarily revolve in opposite directions, and any rotary current which may be generated will be in opposite directions, counteracting one another and incapable of producing continuous forward movement along one screen, as in my machine, in which the movement of the chop under treatment is due to the rotation of all the cylinders of the series in one and the same direction.

V Any suitable cloth-cleaning device may be employed for keeping the meshesof the cloth a series of compartments may be formedend to end by intermediate partitions, and cloths of different grades may be employed,and the unbolted residue of the first may bedelivered to the bottom of the next compartment and across the screen the work of separation continued on cloths l of different texture as far as it is desired to inward direction to the current of chop, so as continue it.

The cylinders may be driven by an open belt extending from a pulley on the shaft of one to a pulley on the shaft of the next, and so on through the series, to give them motion in the same direction.

No broad claim is made herein to the combination, in an elevator or conveyer, of a trunk having a feed-opening at one end and a discharge-opening at the other and a series of cylinders having rotation in the same direction and arranged in proximity to one of the sides of the trunk, as this is embraced in my pending application, Serial No. 388,558.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In combination with a casing provided with a feed-opening at one end and a tailingsdischarge opening at the other, a series of cylinders having rotation in the same direction and a single screen placed in front of the cylinders, substantially as set forth.

asae a 2. In tidtnbinatioii with a casing provided with a feed-opening at one end and a tailingsdischarge opening at the other, a series of bladed cylinders having rotation in the same direction and a single screen placed in front of the cylinders, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination with a casing provided with a feed-opening, a tailings-discharge opening, and a flour-discharge opening, a series of cylinders having rotation in the same direction, a single screen placed in front of the cylinders and forming a partition between the chamber in which the cylinders operate, and another chamber into which the flour passes and from which it is discharged, substantially as set forth.

4. In combination with a casing and feed and tailings discharge openings at opposite ends, a series of cylinders having rotation in the same direction, a single screen placed in front of the cylinders, and baffle-strips along the screen, substantially as set forth.

5. In combination with a casing provided with a feed-opening at the bottom and a tailings-dischargc opening at the top, a series of cylinders placed one above the other and Z l '4' l having rotation in the same direction and a screen placed in front of said cylinders, substantially as set forth.

(1'. In combination with a casing provided 30 with a feed-opening at the bottom and a tailings-discharge opening at the top, a series of cylinders rotating in the same direction, the lower one of said cylinders being constructed with radial blades, and a screen placed in front of said cylinders, substantially as set forth.

7. In combination with a casing provided with a feed-opening at the bottom and a tailings-discharge opening at the top, a series of cylinders rotating in the same direction, the. lower one being constructed with radial blades, a screen I-I, placed under the lower cylinder, and a screen D, placed in front of the series of cylinders, substantially as set forth.

In testiinony'whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two attesting witnesses.

. JOHN M. FINCH.

Witnesses:

ALEX. L. BADT, JOHN P. PooLn. 

